As a board member of our local (Truckee) Excellence in Education Foundation, I’d like to make you aware of a couple of great offers:

Our Skiing for Schools partnership with local ski areas has one last special thru the end of this year’s ski season (see attached). The purchase of a $35 lift ticket is valid any one day at either Squaw Valley or Alpine Meadows from April 15th thru the end of the season (including weekends!). If anyone is interested, I’d be happy to purchase the ticket(s) for you and you can just bring me a reimbursement check or cash and pick up the ticket(s) here at Dickson in Truckee.

Our Golfing for Schools partnership offers a golf card (transferable) good for one round at each of the following golf courses, for 18 holes of play: Coyote Moon, Gray’s Crossing, Northstar, Old Brockway, Old Greenwood, Resort at Squaw Creek, Tahoe City and Tahoe Donner. The cost of the card has been drastically reduced this year to only $295! If any of you have ever played any of these courses, you’ll realize what an incredible deal this is. Carts are not included (most courses do allow walking), and some retrictions apply. The golf cards (limited to a total of 275) will be available for sale starting May 5th.

Excellence in Education board members enjoying the snow at Northstar’s 2010 Skiing for Schools date!

2011 – 2012 Skiing for Schools Dates

On selected days, the participating resorts are offering skiers and snowboarders special discounted lift tickets and the opportunity to support education. The proceeds from your lift ticket purchase go directly to the Excellence in Education Foundation, which provides enhanced educational opportunities for our local students.

Sugar Bowl – Saturday – Friday, December 17- 23 – $35 lift tickets valid any one day from December 17 -23. Purchase tickets the week prior to the valid period at Porters in Truckee or Tahoe City. Thank you for your support!

Tahoe Donner Cross Country – Sunday – Friday, January 8 – 13 – $15 trail passes valid any one day from January 8 – 13. Purchase tickets the week prior at Paco’s in Truckee or Alpenglow in Tahoe City. Thank you for your support!

Tahoe Cross Country – Sunday – Friday, January 22 – 27 – $15 lift tickets available the week prior at Paco’s in Truckee or Alpenglow in Tahoe City. Thank you for your support!

Royal Gorge – Monday – Sunday, January 30 – February 5 – $15 trail pass valid any one day from January 30 – February 5. Passes are available the week prior at Paco’s in Truckee or Alpenglow in Tahoe City. Thank you for your support!

Tahoe Donner Ski Area – Sunday – Friday, January 30 – February 5 – $25 lift tickets valid any one day from January 30 – February 5. Purchase tickets the week prior at Porters Sports in Truckee or Tahoe City. Thank you for your support!

Sugar Bowl- Saturday – Friday, March 24 -30 – $35 lift tickets valid any one day from March 24 -30. Purchase tickets the week prior at Porters Sports. Tickets will be sold until March 23 or until sold out.

Squaw Valley USA and Alpine Meadows – Sunday, April 15 to end of the season – $35 lift tickets valid any one day at either resort from April 15 to the end of the season. Purchase tickets the week prior at Porters Sports.

Purchase downhill ski tickets the week prior to the valid ticket period at Porters Sports locations (Truckee and Tahoe City). Purchase cross-country passes in advance at Paco’s in Truckee and Alpenglow in Tahoe City. A limited supply of tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis and will not be available at the resorts the day(s) of the event. Check and cash are preferred form of payment. Tickets are not refundable. All Skiing for Schools proceeds are donated to Excellence in Education through your lift ticket purchase and the generous support of participating ski resorts.

Single Family:
• 571 total active/active-contingent listings (down 9% from a total of 630 a month ago)
• 124 REO/SS = 22% (down 13% from a total of 142 a month ago)
• 27 REO (down 25% from a total of 36 a month ago)
• 97 SS, of which 59% have offers working (down 8% from a total of 106 a month)

Condos/Townhomes:
• 231 total active/active-contingent listings (down just 1% from a total of 233 a month ago)
• 32 REO/SS = 14% (down just 9% from a total of 35 a month ago)
• 6 REO (down 33% from a total of 9 a month ago)
• 26 SS, of which 62% have offers working (no change from last month)

Although there’s not a significant change in the condo/townhome statistics for distressed properties (except for 1/3 less REOs), on the ‘single family’ front, this is 2 months of significant drops in number of REO/Short Sale properties on the market. At the beginning of December, there were a total of 171 single family REO/SS listings (active and active-contingent); today there are 124, a 27% drop. Twould be nice if this were a trend!

Truckee, CA – Ski or ride at huge discounts when you pre-purchase Skiing for Schools lift tickets for a variety of participating resorts. This year ski areas have provided more flexibility as lift tickets will be valid for any one day within specified weeks. Downhill ski area tickets are available in advance at Porters in Truckee and Tahoe City and Nordic ski area tickets may be purchased at Paco’s in Truckee and Alpenglow, Tahoe City.

“We believe that this fundraiser takes full advantage of our many unique winter resorts,” explains Laura Abbey Brown, Executive Director of the Foundation. “We hope that people will take advantage of the great snow, get a great deal on tickets and support a great cause.”

Downhill tickets may be purchased in advance at Truckee and Tahoe City Porters Sports locations for the Skiing for Schools dates. Nordic passes may be purchased at Paco’s Truckee and Alpenglow, Tahoe City. A limited number of tickets are sold on a first come, first served basis and will not be available at the resorts the day of the event. Check and cash are preferred form of payment. Tickets are not refundable.

The proceeds from each lift ticket purchase goes directly to the Excellence in Education Foundation, which provides enhanced educational opportunities to local Tahoe/Truckee area students.

For more information and updates, visit www.exined.org.

The Tahoe Truckee Excellence in Education Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization that enhances public education within the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District to strengthen the learning experience for students. Each year the Foundation raises money and provides grants, resources and partnerships to benefit students, teachers and the educational community as a whole.

We have received almost 750” of snow this year, which is about 62 feet of snow (enough to cover a 5 story building). We need to get a total of 840 inches to make this the snowiest year ever breaking the 1938 record. If you’re wondering what were the five snowiest winters at Norden (in order) are – 1938, 1952, 1880, 1890 and 1895.

Records have been kept since 1878 marking it the longest data set in Sierra Nevada. The Tamarack station, at 8,000 feet elevation in Alpine County, was active for a relatively short period of time. Not only was the seasonal snowfall record was set there, but California’s greatest snow depth of 37.6 feet was measured there in 1911. The United States greatest monthly snowfall record of 32.5 feet occurred there during January 1911.

To put the 2011 season in perspective, as of March 28th we are in the top 10 years of the most snow. See below and attached the Donner Summit Snowfall from 1879 – 2010 by the CSSL.

Five (more) reasons to visit Lake Tahoe this winter

By: Kathleen Jay
Special to The Examiner
November 7, 2010

Ski Free: Lake Tahoe features 12 mountain resorts, including Northstar-at-Tahoe on the North Shore. (Courtesy photo)

In less than two weeks, ski and snowboarding season will be here.

Located approximately 200 miles east of San Francisco, Lake Tahoe — the largest alpine lake in North America surrounded by the Sierra Nevada mountains — has been popular for more than a century, when Truckee ski hill opened in 1910.

And if you are not a skier or snowboarder, the area is filled activities — from ice skating at Heavenly, Northstar or Squaw, taking sleigh rides along the edge of the lake, or tubing down groomed hill.

What’s new this season

Vail’s acquisition of Northstar, partnership with Heavenly: In late October, Vail Resorts — which already operates Heavenly — acquired Northstar. What this means for season pass holders is this: Heavenly and Epic Pass holders will immediately gain access to Northstar; in addition, holders of Northstar-Sierra Double Whammy passes will gain access to Heavenly.Northstar expands snowboarding instruction, adds to village: Northstar Resort’s Burton Snowboard Academy has three new offerings: instruction for kids ages 7 to 12 years old; instruction for 4- to 6-year-olds; and a new women’s program, which will be offered every Friday during the winter for an all-day snowboarding session.

Northstar — which has a 150,000-square-foot village that has an outdoor ice-skating rink and more than 35 shops and restaurants — is opening two new stores: the Marketplace, a grab-and-go grocery that will also be selling beer, wine and spirits; and All Fired Up!, a pottery painting studio.Heavenly to open new mountain lodge, terrain park: The big news for Heavenly is opening a new, mid-mountain dining facility: Tamarack Lodge. The a 15,000-square-foot restaurant will feature a scramble-style food court and an open dining area overlooking ski runs serviced by the Tamarack Express chairlift through a wall of floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Set for completion in February, the lodge will offer 500 indoor seats and 250 outdoor seats.

Also worth noting: Heavenly is opening a new terrain park — called High Roller Heavenly — made entirely from recycled objects.Sierra-at-Tahoe adds lifts for beginners: Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort on the south shore recently added two new surface lifts for the upcoming winter season. Totaling 700 feet, the two new carpet conveyor lifts will allow beginning skiers and snowboarders to access 11 acres of sculpted Smart Terrain.

Also for the young or young-at-heart, Sierra-at-Tahoe will open Blizzard Mountain, a new snow-tubing park that will offer two rope-tow accessible tubing lanes, an expanded snow play and sledding area, and outdoor fire pits.

Kirkwood launches canopy zip-line tour: Last month, Kirkwood Mountain Resort launched a new canopy zip-line tour of the mountain resort. Run by Zip Tahoe Canopy Tours, the zip-line experience features eight cables, each with its own characteristic of speed, height-range and scenery, such as tree house platforms, suspension bridges and trees five feet in diameter. Guided tours run 2½ to three hours long.

For families, the resort is offering two new passes: the “Daycare Dilemma” lift ticket allows parents to split shifts on the slopes and a new “Intro to Snow” program will give toddlers an active alternative to traditional daycare.If you go

South Shore

Heavenly Mountain Resort (www.skiheavenly.com): The largest ski area in California and Nevada, located near Stateline.